My Literary House by Indran Amirthanayagam
When I published my first book The Elephants of Reckoning in 1993, A.K. Ramanujan wrote on the back cover: “Indran Amirthanayagam’s is a welcome new voice in Sri Lankan poetry–and in the poetry of migration.”
With those words Ramanujan traced the route my poetry would follow over these last three decades. He baptized me in the waters of migration. Now, in America ruled by Scar, rearing from the balustrade at a once noble Washington address, the people need to free themselves from the circling hyenas. No, I am not obsessed with The Lion King, or the pretendent who seeks to usurp a democratic office. But I am a poet and therefore a weathervane, reflecting energies blowing through the country of my refuge, my home in the diaspora, my particular residence in Rockville, Maryland, and my literary house at Matwaala, where I drink the metaphors of poetry and sing and make merry on page and stage.
I first came across this group of South Asian diaspora poets in 2019 at a literary festival organized by Matwaala in New York. We read on the first evening at New York University, and were thrilled to receive Salman Rushdie as our guest. He sat in the front row and listened to our various poems of exile and arrival, loss and gain, love and war and holiness. We did not then know that Rushdie would be attacked and lose an eye in the future, survive, and write the memoir Knife. We did not know that the orange-haired tyrant would be defeated–I had celebrated his impending fall in my book Ten Thousand Steps Against the Tyrant–but then he came back. He escaped the many attempts to punish him for his crimes. So here in 2025 as I write Rushdie has survived, and us too, but the country’s hostage to the forces of darkness–to use Rushdie’s character from Haroun–the Khattam Shud’s, the thou-shalt-nots– of the American polity.
So how do we respond to the thou-shalt-not’s? We walk, we think, we write. And we share what we write. And we write to our representatives. And we march in front of the barricaded institutions of government, universities, banks and businesses engaged in trade with rogue governments and racist philosophies.
On this 10th year anniversary, I salute Matwaala for its myriad and sustainable outreach both within the South Asian diaspora in these once united states, but also its outreach to other diaspora communities. And yes, Matawaala is US focused but its members have cousins in other diasporas, such as the English and the Australian, and of course relatives and roots still in their original homes.
On this 10th year anniversary, I salute the breadth of Matwaala’s artistic engagement, from film to theater to poetry to generative and critical theoretical workshops. And importantly, to advocate for South Asian diaspora poets to be included and celebrated in the American canon, alongside all the other migrant groups who have contributed to the American poetry book and the American songbook.
I am honored and humbled to serve as Matwaala’s garlanded featured poet during this tenth anniversary year.
With those words Ramanujan traced the route my poetry would follow over these last three decades. He baptized me in the waters of migration. Now, in America ruled by Scar, rearing from the balustrade at a once noble Washington address, the people need to free themselves from the circling hyenas. No, I am not obsessed with The Lion King, or the pretendent who seeks to usurp a democratic office. But I am a poet and therefore a weathervane, reflecting energies blowing through the country of my refuge, my home in the diaspora, my particular residence in Rockville, Maryland, and my literary house at Matwaala, where I drink the metaphors of poetry and sing and make merry on page and stage.
I first came across this group of South Asian diaspora poets in 2019 at a literary festival organized by Matwaala in New York. We read on the first evening at New York University, and were thrilled to receive Salman Rushdie as our guest. He sat in the front row and listened to our various poems of exile and arrival, loss and gain, love and war and holiness. We did not then know that Rushdie would be attacked and lose an eye in the future, survive, and write the memoir Knife. We did not know that the orange-haired tyrant would be defeated–I had celebrated his impending fall in my book Ten Thousand Steps Against the Tyrant–but then he came back. He escaped the many attempts to punish him for his crimes. So here in 2025 as I write Rushdie has survived, and us too, but the country’s hostage to the forces of darkness–to use Rushdie’s character from Haroun–the Khattam Shud’s, the thou-shalt-nots– of the American polity.
So how do we respond to the thou-shalt-not’s? We walk, we think, we write. And we share what we write. And we write to our representatives. And we march in front of the barricaded institutions of government, universities, banks and businesses engaged in trade with rogue governments and racist philosophies.
On this 10th year anniversary, I salute Matwaala for its myriad and sustainable outreach both within the South Asian diaspora in these once united states, but also its outreach to other diaspora communities. And yes, Matawaala is US focused but its members have cousins in other diasporas, such as the English and the Australian, and of course relatives and roots still in their original homes.
On this 10th year anniversary, I salute the breadth of Matwaala’s artistic engagement, from film to theater to poetry to generative and critical theoretical workshops. And importantly, to advocate for South Asian diaspora poets to be included and celebrated in the American canon, alongside all the other migrant groups who have contributed to the American poetry book and the American songbook.
I am honored and humbled to serve as Matwaala’s garlanded featured poet during this tenth anniversary year.
Biography and Bibliography: Indran Amirthanayaga
Indran Amirthanayagam is a poet, editor, publisher, translator, youtube host and diplomat. For thirty years he worked for his adoptive country, the United States, on diplomatic assignments in Africa, Asia, Europe and North and South America. Amirthanayagam produced a unique record in 2020 publishing three poetry collections written in three different languages. He writes in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Haitian Creole. He has published twenty eight poetry books and translations. In music, he recorded Rankont Dout. He edits the Beltway Poetry Quarterly (www.beltwaypoetry.com); writes https://indranamirthanayagam.blogspot.com; writes a weekly poem for Haiti en Marche and El Acento; has received fellowships from the Foundation for the Contemporary Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, The US/Mexico Fund for Culture and the Macdowell Colony. He is the IFLAC Word Poeta Mundial 2022.
Amirthanayagam hosts The Poetry Channel https://youtube.com/user/indranam. New books include Seer, The Runner’s Almanac, and Powèt nan po la (Poet of the Port ) Indran publishes poetry books at Beltway Editions (www.beltwayeditions.com). Amirthanayagam’s first collection in Portuguese Música subterranea just appeared from Editora Kotter in Brazil.
Amirthanayagam hosts The Poetry Channel https://youtube.com/user/indranam. New books include Seer, The Runner’s Almanac, and Powèt nan po la (Poet of the Port ) Indran publishes poetry books at Beltway Editions (www.beltwayeditions.com). Amirthanayagam’s first collection in Portuguese Música subterranea just appeared from Editora Kotter in Brazil.
Books and Music by Indran Amirthanayagam
The Elephants of Reckoning, Hanging Loose Press, New York, 1993
Ceylon R.I.P., Institute for Ethnic Studies, Colombo, Sri Lanka 2001
El infierno de los pájaros, Editorial Resistencia, Mexico City, Mexico, 2001
El hombre que recoge nidos, Editorial Resistencia/Conarte, Monterrey, México, 2005
The Splintered Face (Tsunami Poems), Hanging Loose Press, New York 2008
Sol Camuflado, Lustra Editores, Lima, 2010
La pelota del pulpo (The Octopus' Ball), Editorial Apogeo, Lima, 2012
Sin adorno—lírica para tiempos neobarrocos, Univ. Autónoma de Nuevo León, México 2012
Uncivil War, Tsar—now Mawenzi House, Toronto, 2013
Aller-Retour Au Bord de la Mer, Legs Editions, Haiti. 2014
Ventana Azul, El Tapiz del Unicornio, México, 2016
Pwezi a Kat Men (written with Alex LaGuerre). Edition Delince,
Il n'est de solitude que l'île lointaine, Legs Editions, Haiti, 2017
Coconuts On Mars, Poetrywala, Paperwall Publishers, Mumbai, India, 2019
En busca de posada, Editorial Apogeo, Lima, Perú, 2019
Paolo 9, Manofalsa, Lima, Peru, 2019
Sur l'île nostalgique, L’Harmattan, Paris, France, 2020
The Migrant States, Hanging Loose Press, New York, 2020
Lírica a tiempo, Mesa Redonda, Lima, Peru,2020
Blue Window, Dialogos Books , New Orleans, 2021
Ten Thousand Steps Against The Tyrant, Broadstone Books, 2022
Origami: Selected Poems of Manuel Ulacia, Dialogos , New Orleans, 2023
Powet Nan Po A (Poet Of The Port), MadHat Press, 2023
Musica Subterranea, Editora Kotter, Brazil, 2024
The Runner’s Almanac, Spuyten Duyvil, New York, 2024
Seer, Hanging Loose Press, New York, 2024
El bosque de deleites fratricidas, RIL Editores, 2025
Animal For The Eyes by Kenia Cano. Translated by Indran Amirthaayagam, forthcoming
Let Nan Sid, (forthcoming)
Rankont Dout, CD with Donaldzie Theodore, Pawol Tanbou, Titi Congo. Port Au Prince. October 2017
They Died Not in Vain, music video, with Evans Okan, Cuernavaca, November 2019
Ceylon R.I.P., Institute for Ethnic Studies, Colombo, Sri Lanka 2001
El infierno de los pájaros, Editorial Resistencia, Mexico City, Mexico, 2001
El hombre que recoge nidos, Editorial Resistencia/Conarte, Monterrey, México, 2005
The Splintered Face (Tsunami Poems), Hanging Loose Press, New York 2008
Sol Camuflado, Lustra Editores, Lima, 2010
La pelota del pulpo (The Octopus' Ball), Editorial Apogeo, Lima, 2012
Sin adorno—lírica para tiempos neobarrocos, Univ. Autónoma de Nuevo León, México 2012
Uncivil War, Tsar—now Mawenzi House, Toronto, 2013
Aller-Retour Au Bord de la Mer, Legs Editions, Haiti. 2014
Ventana Azul, El Tapiz del Unicornio, México, 2016
Pwezi a Kat Men (written with Alex LaGuerre). Edition Delince,
Il n'est de solitude que l'île lointaine, Legs Editions, Haiti, 2017
Coconuts On Mars, Poetrywala, Paperwall Publishers, Mumbai, India, 2019
En busca de posada, Editorial Apogeo, Lima, Perú, 2019
Paolo 9, Manofalsa, Lima, Peru, 2019
Sur l'île nostalgique, L’Harmattan, Paris, France, 2020
The Migrant States, Hanging Loose Press, New York, 2020
Lírica a tiempo, Mesa Redonda, Lima, Peru,2020
Blue Window, Dialogos Books , New Orleans, 2021
Ten Thousand Steps Against The Tyrant, Broadstone Books, 2022
Origami: Selected Poems of Manuel Ulacia, Dialogos , New Orleans, 2023
Powet Nan Po A (Poet Of The Port), MadHat Press, 2023
Musica Subterranea, Editora Kotter, Brazil, 2024
The Runner’s Almanac, Spuyten Duyvil, New York, 2024
Seer, Hanging Loose Press, New York, 2024
El bosque de deleites fratricidas, RIL Editores, 2025
Animal For The Eyes by Kenia Cano. Translated by Indran Amirthaayagam, forthcoming
Let Nan Sid, (forthcoming)
Rankont Dout, CD with Donaldzie Theodore, Pawol Tanbou, Titi Congo. Port Au Prince. October 2017
They Died Not in Vain, music video, with Evans Okan, Cuernavaca, November 2019